The dozen people ringing the tables at the Harvest Moon Brewery & Cafe in New Brunswick, New Jersey, look and act more like a family than a track club. They dip their nachos into each other's entrees, joke about hating their roommates—who are each other—and commiserate about the boring town in which most of them live. "No one's getting into much trouble," says Julie Culley, 30, who's qualified in the 5000 meters for the 2012 U.S. Olympic Trials.

They do this as Coach Francis X. Gagliano, 75, looks on, sometimes jumping in on the jokes himself before addressing workouts and upcoming travel plans.

Gagliano, whom they call "Gags," is the driving force behind these athletes being here instead of at higher profile running programs in Oregon or California—or not being part of a professional club at all. Together, they are the New Jersey-New York Track Club, one of the first elite track clubs based in the Northeast. Altitude training be damned: At press time, 15 of the team's potential 17 American qualifiers (there are 24 members total) had earned their way to the June Olympic Trials, in Eugene, Oregon.

And while some who closely follow racing say odds are against one or more of them making it to London for the 2012 Olympics, the athletes say otherwise.

"They all have a goal of making the Olympic Trials, then making it to their final event of the Trials, and possibly making the Olympics or World Championships," says Gagliano. "And someday we hope to have a medalist."

Still, they acknowledge this team wasn't supposed to be. In 2009, Gagliano quit a storied 50-year coaching career that turned out 11 Olympians, 140 All-Americans, and seven individual national champions. He left his post at the Oregon Track Club for Rye, New York, where his daughter-in-law battled stage four cancer.

After she passed away, he realized he wanted to coach again. But closer to his family. At the same time, 2008 Olympian Erin Donohue (who for 2012 has qualified in the 1500 meters) wanted to move back to New Jersey after five months of training in Oregon. "He still wanted to coach, and I needed a coach," she says.

The goal, then, was simple: give runners interested in staying in the Northeast a place to run and train hard. In 2011, the group became a nonprofit organization, and the club now pays for athletes to train: Those without shoe contracts get a small stipend, and rent and travel are covered. For those with shoe contracts, who right now are in the minority, the club steps in to fill the gaps that their funding does not cover—things like massages and medical copays.

It also gives space for runners like Christian Gonzalez, who ran at Rider University, the chance to grow. Since working with the club, he's broken the four-minute mile and has qualified for the 2012 Trials in the 800 meters.

"He's the perfect example of someone who would not have had the opportunity [postcollege]," says Gagliano. "Now the opportunity is in his backyard."

"I don't think I really could have continued running full time," says Ashley Higginson, 22, who has qualified for the Trials in the steeplechase and who went to Princeton University.

The best part, though, is they push each other. "We're all shooting to make the Olympic team," says Frances Koons, 26, who'll compete at the Trials in the 5000 meters. "It might be a long shot, but together we have a lot of experience to draw from. I think we'd all agree we're in the perfect spot."